Shearman & Sterling continues to play a dominant role in global M&A, witness the firm’s No. 2 ranking worldwide for the second quarter of 2010, according to Dealogic. The firm was involved in 23 deals with a total value of over $46.5 billion.

Some of Shearman & Sterling’s M&A deals announced in the second quarter include the firm’s representation of Sybase in its pending $5.8 billion sale to SAP; Psychiatric Solutions in its pending $3.1 billion sale to Universal Health Services; Crédit du Nord in its pending $1.05 billion acquisition of Société Marseillaise de Crédit; American Sugar on its proposed £211 million acquisition of Tate & Lyle’s European sugar refining business; Rhodia in its pending $489 million acquisition of Feixiang Chemicals (Zhangjiagang); and Register.com in its pending $135 million sale to Web.com.

“While the M&A landscape has been uneven thus far in 2010, with heavy activity early in the year followed by a bit of a slowdown in the late spring, this global ranking underlines our critical role in some of the most significant transactions of the year,” said Harald Selzner, a Düsseldorf-based partner who co-leads the firm’s global M&A practice. “We remain a go-to firm for major transactions worldwide, including some of the more complex, cross-border deals.”

Added New York-based partner George Casey, the other co-practice leader, “Looking ahead, we continue to see considerable corporate interest in strategic transactions, although it does vary region by region. The key in the second half of the year will be continued confidence in global and regional economic stability.”

Ranked among the world’s leading M&A advisors, Shearman & Sterling draws upon decades of experience in sophisticated global markets to deliver integrated strategic, tactical and technical advice to its clients.